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Garden Colour Wheel – Hints and Tips

Am I a bit colour blind? I see shades in black and white because I do not think and digest what I see.

Colourful gardens are not hard to achieve but here are a few hints and tips to help you with various aspects of planning and using colour.

Tips and Hints for Colourful Tints

Light creates colour so think about the Sun’s effect in the morning, around mid day and in the evening. It has a cooler temperature and helps yellows and pastle colours early, can burn out soft colours in the full glare but adds warm tones later in the afternoon. Look at some old photographs to see what I mean.

Throw your own light into dull corners by painting trellis and furniture white. Light coloured bricks, paving and gravel can also make a huge difference.

Small gardens appear larger if you place soft colours furthest away with vivid colours nearest. For the appearance of width put dark blue at the back and pastels at the front.

Vivid colours make pastel colours seem washed out so separate them with the neutrality of white flowers.

Soften large areas of blue with its complementary colour orange. A complementary colour is directly opposite in a colour wheel. So red and green work well.

Cream, white and mauve can have a peaceful tranquil effect.

It is easy to forget the colour of a flower so tie a piece of coloured nylon yarn to the plant. Then when you move it or plant a companion you know what you will get.

Green is the predominant colour in the garden and has more shades than any other colour. Mix variegated leaves and yellow leaved plants for effect.

Read also Purple coloured flowers on Gardeners TipsOrange Flower Photo club
This extract is from Red and Green in the GardenColour is classified in three ways.
1. Hue- This is the kind of colour and whether it is intense or greyed
2. Brightness – is the total light reflected that provides the tone or luminosity. It is how the eye perceives light to dark colours.
3. Saturation – Is intensity or pureness. spectral colours are the maximum intensity the eye can appreciate. Mixed with any other colour reduces saturation.

12 Responses to Garden Colour Wheel – Hints and Tips

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[…] The leaf textures and colours are quite different but like the flowers they repay close attention. Colour in the garden needs close observation and sometimes a bit of serendipity. This will be helped by a passing understanding of light and reflections within the colour spectrum. See also Colourful Tips […]

[…] Even lifted by the white eye in the center of this geranium below the colour is not sufficiently pastel for my pastel coloured border. For a white border see Sissinghurst Castle For more on a colour wheel read gardeners tips […]

[…] The leaf textures and colours are quite different but like the purple flowers they will also repay close attention. Colour in the garden needs close observation and sometimes a bit of serendipity. This will be helped by a passing understanding of light and reflections within the colour spectrum. For more information see Garden Colour Tips […]